A first-time mom has died during emergency surgery after delivering twins.
Sara Sewald, 26, had been diagnosed weeks ago with pre-eclampsia, the same pregnancy-related blood pressure disorder that Beyoncé survived while pregnant with twins Sir and Rumi.
Hours after giving birth on May 29, doctors at a hospital in Colorado Springs said Sewald needed emergency surgery to fix 'a bit of bleeding,' her partner of three years and father of her son and daughter, Dustin Sisneros, told KKTV.
Doctors initially said it was a simple procedure, but her condition rapidly deteriorated.
Sisneros is still not sure exactly what happened, or what questions to ask, but was told that surgeons hit complications, and within hours a doctor came to inform him that Sewald didn't make it.
Tragically, Sewald is one of the scores of women who die of pregnancy complications in the US, which has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world.
Sara Sewald, 26, of Colorado Springs, was pregnant with twins with Dustin Sisneros, her partner of three years
She delivered Charlotte and Ryan on May 29 (pictured shortly after in hospital)
Dustin is now channeling all his energy into caring for his son and daughter while grieving
'They had mentioned that she had a little bit of bleeding, you know, and they were going to do what they could to stop it,' Sisneros told KKTV.
'So you know, I wasn't really too nervous. They said not to worry, it's kind of normal and we have it under control.
'They had to take her back into the ICU and feed her some blood and put her on oxygen.
'You know, they had sedated her and prepared her for surgery to get her, you know, back to health… unfortunately, it was just a complicated surgery. It's hard to ask a lot of the details about what had happened.'
Sisneros is channeling his energy into caring for twins Charlotte and Ryan as he tries to take stock of what's happened.
'Every time I see them, I tell them their mommy loves them, and they either give me a smile so I know that she's signifying that she's watching and she's in the room with us and she's right there,' he told KKTV. 'It's just so amazing. I'll be sure her memory lives on forever.'
